In an image forming apparatus in accordance with the electrophotography method, a surface of an image bearing member is charged with electricity uniformly by an electrostatic charger, then an electrostatic latent image based on image data is formed on the surface of the image bearing member by an exposure device, then a developer is supplied to the electrostatic latent image by a developing device, and thereby an electrostatic latent image is developed.
The electrostatic charger installed in such an image forming apparatus is provided with a housing of which one side facing the image bearing member is open having a U-shaped cross section, and a discharge electrode is disposed inside the housing (for example, refer to Patent Literature 1).